South African artists made ‘podium places’ at the Art Masters competition, where they faced a battle of the ball pens and created incredible works using simple stationery.
Africa (07 November 2024) — In the battle of ball pens that had artists across Africa creating masterpieces with the same tools most of us reserve for messy handwriting, two South African artists were deemed masters.
The Bic Art Master is a competition that invites artists across the continent to participate and show off their raw skills without an abundance of creative tools. Their challenge is to create works of art with only paper and ball pens under a particular theme, showcasing their skills across a spectrum of artistic assets.
This year’s theme was Ubuntu, so it was only fitting that a country which holds the philosophy in such high regard like South Africa does, saw two winners against an ink pool of fierce competition.
In second place, Zolani Makibi’s work ‘Raised by the Community’ reigned victorious. Zolani created an impressive visualisation of the proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’; capturing a child looking almost like a work of pottery being sculpted by many hands on the move in a circular flow of influence.
In third place, South Africa’s Nhlakanipho Mkhize’s breathtaking ‘Brother’s Keeper’ sees an emotion-evoking display of hands clutching onto each other’s arms. There’s a solidarity and even a sense of desperation in the visual that speaks largely to how much we need each other. And, you’d be forgiven for suspecting this work is a photograph as shading and mastery of highlights are so well executed!
The overall winner was Joseph Akpan from Nigeria for the impressive work ‘Stronger Together’.
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